


Nails aren't the only things hard, long, or hammered

by FilthyWoman



Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 19:14:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/739162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FilthyWoman/pseuds/FilthyWoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An accident in the Galley La shipyard leads to an indecency in the workplace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

TITLE: "Nails aren't the only things hard, long, or hammered."

MAIN PAIRING: Lucci x Paulie [PUCCI]

SETTING: Chapter 1 set sometime prior to the Going Merry's arrival in Water 7.

STATUS: This fanfiction is a work in progress

WORDCOUNT: Chapter one is 11,111 words

WARNING: EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT INVOLVING HOMOSEXUAL MALE SEX.(YAOI) NOT FOR ANYONE UNDER 18!!

AUTHOR'S NOTE: _We do not use Japanese words in place of English ones when there is an appropriate translation already in English. We feel that it disrupts the flow of the story for non-Japanese speakers by throwing in random words like "aibou", "nakama" and "daijoubu." Wherever possible, we have tried to find the equivalent of various key phrases. In this story, we translate Iceburg's trademark "N ma" to express phrases of uncertainty like "Um." "Mn" or "Well" depending on the situation. Also, please note that we have also changed Hattori's "kurupo-" sound as it is seen in the manga to reflect more of a "broo-hoo" type sound as it is seen in the anime. Although Hattori actually says 'kurupo-' in both the anime and manga, the elongated "kuuruupuu" sounds closer to a "broo-hoo" sound when written in English. We have also seen it written as "broo-hoo" in other fanfictions so it should be okay._

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**Chapter 1: 'Nails Aren't the Only Things Hard, Long or Hammered'**

It was not too long after the Galley La Company shipwrights completed a large order that another ship contract was signed. The final negotiations on the previous ship had gone well and the clients were in the work yard making their final inspection with Lulu.

As usual, the men at Galley La each were hard at work on completing their newest order. And because they all worked well as a team, the construction of the new ship at Dock 1 was a bit ahead of schedule.

"It's Mr. Iceburg!"

Paulie's head shot up from his work upon hearing that name and he directed a hopeful glance at the mayor who was making his way through the shipyard. Califa was trailing behind Iceburg carrying her clipboard and wearing yet another objectionable skirt. Iceburg had stopped to talk to Kaku and Paulie saw this as his opportunity to walk over and tell Califa how he felt about her shameless exhibitionism in an all male workplace.

Lucci could sense an argument from Paulie brewing even before the blonde left his workstation. He'd been observing Paulie for quite some time now and anticipating the blonde's moods had become second nature.

Obviously, Paulie was going to start his prudish bitching about Califa's inappropriate wardrobe again. Lucci'd seen it before and knew he hadn't seen the last of it but something different about today required Lucci to interfere with the impending chain of events. Quite possibly it was going to be the very day that brought an end to the CP9's undercover mission in Water Seven.

For the last two nights, Califa had reported to Lucci through Hattori that Iceburg had been acting strangely. Lucci suspected this had something to do with the Pluton plans and the recent government visit. Once more, Corgi had paid Iceburg an unexpected call that he could not avoid. Califa noted that after the meeting, Iceburg was very irritated. While serving tea later in the afternoon, she noticed a cerulean blue folder on his desk that had not been there before. When Iceburg realized she had seen this folder, he became agitated and immediately removed it from her sight.

Curiously, when Califa investigated the matter later, she discovered the folder was nowhere to be found and was not filed with any of the other papers. Nor was she aware of any hiding place where it might have been stashed.

Perhaps, Lucci suspected, Iceburg was carrying it with him and was finally passing it down to one of his shipwrights. For good reason, Lucci didn't want Paulie to interrupt whatever Iceburg intended to say to Kaku especially if there was a chance Iceburg might freely turn the plans over to himself or Kaku without a fight.

So when Paulie left his station intent on lecturing the sexy-clad secretary and thus breaking up the conversation, Lucci created a diversion that would keep Paulie in check and out of their business.

"AGHH! How dare you--" a pissed Paulie began even before he was in range of Califa. But his thoughts and words were cut off with a deliberate swoop and a broo-hoo from Lucci's pigeon Hattori even before Paulie made it half-way to his goal.

"We need more rags, broo-hoo," Hattori declared after returning to Lucci's shoulder. Paulie turned his attention to the dark haired shipwright who was silently nailing another row of boards together and then, with a huff, picked up a few rags and brought them over to Lucci.

Paulie always seemed to work harder when Iceburg was around even if it was just carrying rags back to a coworker. Lucci admired Paulie's dedication to his job because it mirrored his own loyalty to the World Government. It was clear that Paulie held a very deep respect for the company and the man who ran it.

Iceburg was Paulie's teacher and confidant. There was a mutual friendship and trust that existed between the two men and it was because of this bond that Lucci assigned himself to monitor Paulie's behavior in the guise of a close coworker.

It had been assumed that Iceburg would pass the plans on at some point to one of his workers and Paulie and the other foreman of Dock 1 were prime candidates.

To Lucci, however, his interest in Paulie became more than just for the sake of a mission. He developed something akin to feelings for the blonde rope master even though his government job led him to deny that those feelings ever existed.

Lucci had enjoyed those bickering moments between Paulie and his pigeon. The way Paulie tried to talk back and overpower Hattori. Then there was the attention Paulie paid to him every time the fighting escalated. Paulie willing tried to take Lucci head on and never suspected the hidden danger of his actions.

It was amusing to think that Paulie actually thought he was stronger and somehow capable of defeating him. Lucci also found it entertaining when Paulie would drag him out to Blueno's after work for a round of cheap liquor and treat it as if it were the most expensive booze in the world. He certainly was never bored by his time in Water Seven when Paulie was around.

And on those certain nights when Paulie got really drunk, Lucci could only imagine what it might be like to actually take the blonde to bed with him. He expected that Paulie would retain that same uptight personality with his clothes on or off. Without a doubt, however, it would be quite different than Kaku had been in the sack.

Lucci hated being on bottom and yet that's where he often ended up when he and Kaku fucked.

Kaku decided he couldn't get off if he wasn't the one giving it to another person. Besides that, his nose made it awkward when they changed positions so Kaku frequently claimed that the sex had to be that way. It wasn't that having sex with Kaku lacked variety, because there certainly was variety, but rather it was a matter of Kaku and his power lust.

Kaku couldn't settle for someone dominating him and neither could Lucci so there was always some kind of clash.

It was like putting two ice cubes together. They could rub against each other and become slippery but there was never any genuine heat.

Lucci silently craved spontaneity, warmth, and passion and he felt fairly confident that a certain blonde could be capable of granting him that type of gratification. However, Paulie's hero crush on Iceburg and Lucci's own mission jeopardized any shot at obtaining that secret desire.

The thought made Lucci refocus himself on the task at hand. Iceburg was no longer talking with Kaku. In fact, he wasn't talking with anybody. Paulie, seemingly aware of this development, quickly went back to work as Iceburg approached the two of them alone.

"Mn...Paulie," Iceburg began, "I wanted to speak to you...privately." Iceburg cast a wary glance over his shoulder in Califa's direction and then added, "It's about a matter of great importance."

Paulie nodded and then followed Iceburg towards the opposite side of the work yard near the almost completed ship. A look from Califa and Kaku indicated to Lucci that he needed to be the one to listen into what was being said between Paulie and Iceburg. Believing this could lead to the exchange his team had been waiting for, Lucci silently approached the two men and sent Hattori to inconspicuously perch near them so he was in a position to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"What is it you wanted to talk about?" Paulie asked Iceburg when it seemed like they were out of the hearing range of the other workers.

"Mn...well..." Iceburg said seriously, "the thing I mentioned to you a while ago has come up."

"Oh that," Paulie replied with a hard nod, "Did you bring it with you?"

Iceburg cast a suspicious glance around the area and then removed the cerulean blue folder from underneath the front of his jacket and handed it to Paulie.

"I have to get back before Califa finishes the task I gave her. Take a look at this and we will discuss it later." And with that, Iceburg walked back across the shipyard towards Califa and Kaku.

Paulie waited a few moments until Iceburg had left the workyard with Califa. Then he turned his back and proceeded to open the folder, sneaking a peek at its contents. Indeed, Iceburg had told him about this and the need for secrecy when handling that particular document. Certainly, it was a risk exchanging them so openly and yet, it couldn't be helped. Time was running out. Paulie felt good that Iceburg had trusted him alone to share and safeguard that folder.

From his hiding spot, Hattori craned his neck to see the plans Paulie had been inspecting. Lucci could sense from the bird's distressed actions that Hattori could not make out what was actually contained in the folder. The only thing Lucci definitely knew at this point was that some plans had been entrusted to Paulie's care and they appeared to be of an urgent and secret nature.

Paulie's expression as he examined the documents was one of immense surprise. The intricate details of the content amazed him. Iceburg said that he had inherited this particular creation from his mentor Tom and the scope of the design supported his claim.

Paulie sometimes dreamed he'd someday be working from the same design as the great man who built the sea train but he never imagined it would be like this. He and Iceburg would be working on a joint project. The thought of working one on one with his mentor made his heart skip.

KAAAAA-BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM....

Paulie jolted, slamming the folder shut as the ground shook from a nearby explosion. Paulie turned around quickly and discovered that a canon ball had struck one of the main beams that supported the nearly completed frame of the new ship.

Paulie's eyes immediately followed the line of smoke back to the other side of the work yard where he could see the previous group of clients near their new ship's canon. Lulu had begun shouting and started hitting some of the clients but Paulie was so far away that he couldn't actually make out what was being said. But as far as he was concerned, the scene spoke for itself. One of those idiots was screwing around and fired the damn canon.

Then, there was a bone chilling creak off at Paulie's side and the sound of wood splintering as it buckled under the new ship's weight. Realizing that the ship was about to fall and that all their hard work would go to waste, Paulie tried to free up his hands by jamming the folder Iceburg gave him into his pockets. However, the folder was too wide so Paulie had to improvise by tucking it into the front of his jeans.

"Rope Action!" Paulie shouted as he made an effort to stop the ship from tilting and causing the other support beams to collapse in upon themselves. With a firm grip, he secured the boat with the rope and netted it to a halt.

"I got it under control," Paulie hollered as some of the workmen came to help. But then two more support beams began to give way and Paulie's feet began to slide and drift forward under the new strain on the rope.

"Fuck!" Paulie cursed, trying to dig his heels into the ground. He had underestimated the pull of gravity and found himself being hauled into the air along with the ship. It seemed inevitable that he was going to be drug over even as he threw out another rope to gain control of the situation.

It was then that two strong arms wrapped around his chest and pulled him back towards the ground with tremendous force.

Paulie's heart pounded hard from the rush of events. In those mere seconds, there was a lot of shouting but Paulie couldn't comprehend any of it. The only sound that filled his ears was the breathing of the man who was pulling him to safety.

Paulie felt the strain on the ropes ease as the other man helped him. He then caught a glimpse of Kaku with some workmen struggling to replace the damaged support beams.

Paulie's heels connected with the ground once more. He could feel the other man's grip upon his chest tighten and the strain of fingers bearing down through his bulls-eye shirt.

"LUCCI! PAULIE!" Tilestone shouted at the top of his lungs as he bolted in from the side like a linebacker towards the workmen who had nearly finished replacing one of the beams, "I GOT IT!"

Then to everyone's horror, especially Paulie's, Tilestone knocked the workmen out of the way and wrapped his arms around the new beam causing it to become unstable again.

"Let them fix it Tilestone," Paulie shouted as he started losing his footing again.

"WE ARE!" Tilestone yelled back.

Now that the workmen were starting to help Tilestone with that beam, Paulie became more aware of the man who was holding on to him.

Suddenly, it felt awkward to know that it was Lucci's hands gripping him from behind, bearing down on the hardness of his chest and holding him firmly.

Then, as if in an attempt to readjust his hold on the cigar smoking blonde, Lucci seized Paulie's belt and hooked the fingers of his right hand through the front loop of Paulie's jeans just to the right of the area where Paulie had secured Iceburg's folder.

"I don't need your help," Paulie stubbornly complained to Lucci, "Go help them instead."

But Lucci didn't let go. Instead he set out to steady the rope by moving his left hand over the cuff of Paulie's blue jacket until he was firmly gripping it and the straining portion of the rope hidden beneath Paulie's sleeve. With a forceful tug, Paulie's body crushed against Lucci's as the dark haired shipwright pulled Paulie in closer to his own body.

Abruptly, shoulder blades met chest and ass met groin.

There was a hot breath on the back of Paulie's neck and wavy wisps of black hair invading his stiff collar. Paulie turned his head to catch a glimpse of the other man's face. It made Paulie self-conscious when Lucci's dark eyes returned his gaze. He felt flustered by their proximity to one another. Here he was in a close physical situation with Lucci and the dark haired shipwright's hand was only inches away from his groin.

"Lucci, you can let go." Paulie began. But no sooner did Paulie say those words did the rope jerk up and produce a condition that caused Lucci to thrust Paulie downward again into an even tighter embrace.

Paulie felt it that time. The intoxicating way in which two bodies connect with one another. The absolutely filthy feeling of two workmen committing an indecency in the workplace even with their clothes on. Paulie could feel Lucci's groin pressing into his ass again and that contact had stimulated Paulie despite the crucial task in which he and Lucci were engaged. He felt ashamed that he was thinking about Lucci in such a perverse context. But that type of close contact was bound to stir something sexual to the surface. And it had.

Lucci could sense Paulie's tension just by how his grip on the rope changed. Something was going on with the blonde rope master and that something seemed to be rooted in his prudish pride. Yet, Lucci didn't have time to consider Paulie's ego. He was helping the blonde because it would ultimately help him accomplish his mission.

Or that was how he justified his current actions.

For Lucci, it was quite possible to obtain the unconfirmed Pluton plans from Paulie's injured or dead body. Even more possible that if the plans were not the ones he suspected them to be that having four Dock 1 foremen in line to potentially receive the Pluton plans gave he and Kaku better odds than having five men whom Iceburg might confide in.

And yet despite those reasons, Lucci still made the decision to intervene on Paulie's behalf.

Lucci intended to see those plans Paulie was carrying. And he was confident he could do so without letting Paulie get hurt.

No matter what protest Paulie offered, Lucci wasn't going to abandon his hold on him. Not until he took advantage of the moment and caught a glimpse of what was actually in that cerulean blue folder tucked securely inside the front of Paulie's jeans.

So Lucci strengthened the grip in his left hand until he was supporting a larger portion of the strain from the ropes. Carefully he shifted the fingers of his right hand from Paulie's belt loop and directed them towards Iceburg's folder. Then he let those fingers slowly glide down beneath the top of Paulie's jeans, along the side of the folder and inside the front part of Paulie's clothing until they were sandwiched between the blonde's briefs and the enticing feel of his warm flesh.

Paulie blushed heavily as he felt the other man's hand work its way downward along the sensitive, naked skin of his lower abdomen and then slip down towards his groin.

Paulie's body shuddered in response to the invasive intrusion. He was surprised that Lucci's hands were rather cold, not sweaty like most workmen's hands and that somehow they felt pleasantly reassuring upon his skin. And he noticed that although Lucci's fingers were somewhat slender in comparison to his own, they possessed a firm roughness that led Paulie to believe that in another circumstance a touch from them might actually have been quite pleasurable.

Paulie bore down on the cigar still between his teeth. For reasons he couldn't comprehend, Lucci had chosen to reposition one of his hands above Paulie's crotch. In that moment, Paulie wanted to understand and make some sort of sense of the other shipwright's behavior. The closest he could imagine was that Lucci somehow assumed that holding on to the inside of his jeans was somehow better than griping on to his belt or belt loops.

"Hey! Hurry the hell up!" Paulie shouted with a beat red face at Tilestone, Kaku, and the other working men who were in the process of securing the last support.

Paulie swallowed hard. The new position made him anxious because it involved having Lucci's hand sliding down the front of his jeans. Paulie reminded himself that saving the ship had to be his biggest concern now. And that in the process of saving it, he couldn't allow himself to mentally turn a complex rescue situation into a sexually oriented one.

Lucci was just readjusting his grip, perhaps finding it easier now to latch on to skin rather than denim. That had to be it Paulie told himself. There was nothing filthy in the other man's hold.

However, Paulie's cock didn't agree and he found his erection taking shape against the inner lining of his underwear. Instinctively, one of Paulie's hands let go of the rope and self consciously shot to the front of his jeans, alarmed that his growing manhood might be discovered by the other shipwright. The action thwarted Lucci's attempt to dislodge the plans. Paulie's premature release of the rope nearly caused the precarious balance of the boat to tip. Lucci could hear the shouts of workmen as the boat wavered. Recognizing that it was going to shift again on the supports before they were completely repaired, Lucci was forced to respond to Paulie's carelessness by withdrawing his fingers from the inner lining of Paulie's briefs so he could capture the other half of the rope.

With Lucci's grip now focused entirely on the rope, Paulie found himself leaning back against the other man, letting Lucci's chest cushion his shoulders and reduce the strain on his one arm. Paulie's hand returned to the rope but not before he pushed the plans that Lucci had been carefully trying to dislodge back down until they were secure again.

The cerulean blue folder in Paulie's possession was indeed thick and in Lucci's mind, consistent with what a massive project like building Pluton might require. Lucci was eager to try again to retrieve the plans but, as he decided before, he wanted to refrain from merely just grabbing the folder and wrenching it from the blonde's waistline.

Lucci didn't think Paulie would tolerate him slipping his fingers inside his briefs again so he would have to find another way of pushing the folder upward until it fell out of the blonde's jeans.

But the possibility of obtaining the plans in that way didn't seem likely anymore. Lucci couldn't just reach his hands down and take another shot at getting that folder. He didn't have the excuse that he was holding on to Paulie any longer because the support beams had replaced most of the strain caused by the ship and made it unnecessary for him to be the blonde's anchor.

Perhaps, however, Paulie hadn't realized this fact yet. Lucci waited for Paulie to regain his control on the rope, gradually allowing the blonde to take more of the weight. He intended to create another situation where Paulie was dependent upon him again for support.

With a fluid motion, Lucci let the rope in his hands begin to slide. Immediately, the blonde did just as Lucci expected. He leaned back, using Lucci's body to steady himself once more. But quickly, Paulie pulled away from the embrace, realizing he was finally able to handle the weight of the rope himself.

"Anchor it over there," Lulu shouted as he approached the pair and began to help them pull the rope back to where one of the workers had finished laying a steel pin for them.

Paulie looked over towards the ship once he, Lucci, and Lulu had finished the task. Each of the new beams appeared strong and Paulie felt pleased that the catastrophe of losing all their hard work had been successfully averted.

But he was also angry that the ship was nearly destroyed in the first place and that he still had developed a raging hard on from his contact with Lucci.

"WE'RE DONE!" Tilestone announced.

Paulie scowled and stomped over to one of the damaged support beams that had been completely removed and thrown to the side.

"Paulie. Are you alright?" Kaku asked as Paulie began kicking the hell out of the beam.

"This is why people shouldn't be screwing around in the work yard!" Paulie ranted, "Especially when they don't work here!"

"Don't badmouth paying customers, broo-hoo!" Hattori scolded after returning to perch on Lucci's shoulder, "If they hear you, they might not pay for the one they nearly destroyed."

"They should have someone who knows how to use a canon!" Paulie complained after giving the beam another hard kick.

"On the bright side though, they didn't hit the ship," Kaku remarked as he examined the ship's hull.

Then Tilestone exclaimed, "THANK GOD ALL THE CABINETS WERE FINE!"

"Yes. Good thing there was only minor damage," Kaku agreed, inspecting more of the ship.

"We should charge them a fee for all the trouble they caused," Paulie grumbled.

"Didn't I say not to bad mouth customers. And besides, they paid in full broo-hoo. Something you haven't been able to do with money Paulie," Hattori deliberately mocked, hoping these words would agitate the rope master.

"Get off my back," Paulie shot back as he turned around to confront Lucci and his bird.

By the tone of Paulie's voice, Lucci assumed he was close to enticing the blonde into a fight. Lucci deliberately intended for Hattori's words to really hit a nerve and by the blonde's behavior he knew that they had. Paulie's temper needed to fly off the handle like it often did. He wanted Paulie to attack with his rope so he could maneuver the blonde into position that would allow him to try to obtain that cerulean blue folder.

But Paulie was irritated and the last thing he wanted to do was start a fight with Lucci and Hattori. His erection had the effect of temporarily dampening his fighting spirit. He felt aggressive because Lucci's touch had been the direct cause of his horniness but not in a mood to actually fight. The heaviness of his cock and the cramping of it against his underwear and the plans made him feel vulnerable in Lucci's presence.

There was also a feeling of tension along his penis caused by the slant of his confined arousal. He could feel himself getting harder just by looking at the dark haired shipwright. It was difficult for him not to admire the way Lucci looked so well groomed or to notice how nicely the other man had taken care of his strong, muscular body. Paulie worried that if he had any more physical contact with Lucci right away he might embarrass himself and make his cock really stand out as a solid outline in his jeans.

"If everything's under control, I'm going to go talk with Mr. Iceburg about this situation," Lulu told Kaku, Lucci, Paulie, and Tilestone as he pushed the point back down into his hair.

"Wait. I've got to go see him later so I'll handle that," Paulie said quickly, recalling that he still had to discuss those plans with Iceburg, "You just get those clients out of our shipyard before anything else goes wrong."

"You going to ask Iceburg for a loan Paulie? Maybe a raise, broo-hoo?" Hattori immediately asked, "I think your money collectors really need it."

"I should ask for one since I have to put up with your bull-shit," Paulie answered as he tried to calm himself by taking a drag on a freshly lit cigar, "Now let's stop standing around and get back to work."

But getting back to work was harder than Paulie believed it would be. For one, he was having a difficult time concentrating on the task he needed to complete. His mind was still racing and deeply preoccupied with the fullness in his jeans. Most of his erections typically went away if he waited it out but this was going to be one of those troublesome days when it seemed like it took forever to resolve itself.

Paulie made a serious effort to focus on the work before him. However, kneeling on the ground with a hard on while carving wood and working across from the man who had inadvertantly given him the erection in the first place was certainly a distracting challenge.

And the folder still secured in the front of his jeans didn't help matters much either. The corner kept poking him and nicking his skin whenever he bent up and down. Yet the inconvenience it created did serve its purpose because it gradually helped the stiffeness in his erection diminish.

"So, did Iceburg mention anything about the mast pole on the new ship when you spoke Paulie?" Kaku inquired as he cut into a piece of wood.

"No." Paulie replied, "Is there going to be a change?"

"It is hard to say," Kaku answered, "Iceburg asked Califia to get my copy of the inventory sheet from the wood yard. I thought maybe he was considering a change to the design."

"But the ship's almost built, broo-hoo?" Hattori interjected from Lucci's shoulder.

"That's why I considered it might be regarding the mast pole. " Kaku explained, "since you did speak with him, didn't you Paulie?"

Paulie uncomfortably turned his attention back to his work and didn't offer much of a reply to Kaku's statement. Lucci stared directly at Kaku just as the long nosed shipwright was about to repeat himself.

There was little advantage in questioning the blonde about the item in his possession. It wasn't likely that Paulie was going to admit he was carrying secret plans around.

One disproving glimpse arch from Lucci's eyebrows and Kaku let the matter drop completely.

Paulie knew better than to just start discussing confidential matters, especially when the topic in question was something so important to Iceburg. Paulie saw Kaku, Lucci, and Tilestone as men he could trust but he didn't wish to sacrifice the trust he and his mentor Iceburg shared. Maybe the other foremen would have to help eventually with some of the construction related details but that decision would have to be Iceburg's call and not his own.

"We need more nails, broo-hoo," Hattori announced. Paulie looked over at Lucci and the project he was in the middle of finishing.

Paulie noted that the dark haired shipwright certainly had accomplished a lot when he compared Lucci's work with his own.

Diligence was a good quality in the workplace and Paulie felt guilty that he'd been working at a rather half-assed pace since he kept shifting his concentration between the hardness that was until very recently throbbing between his legs and the work he still needed to complete.

"Take this one," Kaku said as he held out the bucket for Lucci to accept.

Paulie watched Lucci as he set the bucket on the ground and put his fingers inside to pull out four perfectly formed nails. Lucci positioned the four nails between his teeth and then picked up his hammer to continue working. One by one, Lucci removed a nail from the holding spot between his lips and pounded the head deep into the shaft of wood, driving it hard yet never allowing the wood to splinter.

Paulie gaped as he saw the final nail sticking out of Lucci's mouth. It's long, slender nature bringing to mind a phallic representation of his own softened cock. The trail of saliva upon the last nail glistened under the sunlight as Lucci finally withdrew it and held it between his fingers.

Paulie immediately looked away and cast his embarrassed gaze back down at his carving. He was getting turned on again and this fact was starting to frustrate him. Matters only became more worse when he carelessly made an amateur-like mistake in the design of the wood.

He knew he had fucked it up by gawking at Lucci when he should've been paying attention to his own affairs. But that didn't stop Paulie from looking again anyway and focusing on the breathtaking and highly arousing sight of Lucci twisting the nail between his teeth as he prepped the next area for pounding.

There was a rapid blood rush once again to Paulie's groin and the familiar tingle of erection. His penis swelled and the head became more sensitive than before responding to his body's urgent arousal of desire.

Every sense in him seemed to rebel and demand that he put a pleasurable end to his predicament.

"I'm outta rope," Paulie blurted out, jumping up with a red face and hidden hard on.

"Uh?" Kaku said, looking over, "Are you? I didn't realize you were using any to carve the wood."

"OUTTA ROPE? THAT'S CRAZY TALK!" Tilestone boomed.

"Well I am," Paulie roared, defending the first excuse that had come to his mind even though it had been a blatant lie.

Lucci merely cast a peculiar glance in Paulie's direction and then continued nailing again. He had decided not to interfere with the blonde's intention to "find his rope."

Surely the time must have arrived for Paulie to sneak away and finally secure the secret plans he had received from Iceburg in a much safer location than his jeans.

Kaku responded to Paulie's sudden departure by putting down his saw and watching closely as Paulie rushed away towards the outskirts of the work area. The long nosed shipwright seemed well aware Paulie was probably rushing off to stash the plans that were in his possession. Lucci recognized Kaku's intention to pursue Paulie, possibly to even confront the blonde for the folder.

Lucci sent Hattori to land on the board Kaku had been sawing. Kaku responded to Hattori's presence by turning his head and looking directly over at Lucci.

Lucci tipped his hat to communicate that he would be the one to follow Paulie. Kaku nodded and silently watched as Lucci rose to his feet and then headed off in the same direction Paulie had gone.

Paulie, in the meantime, approached the row of tool sheds intent on taking care of his problem. For that, he went to the usual place he ended up when his cock got the best of him at work and ached so bad that it begged to achieve some type of release.

He stood before the doors of the infamous Shed #4 and looked around to see if anyone was in the immediate vicinity. The only person he spotted was a workman stooped beside one of the wood piles inspecting which boards to use for construction. This knowledge made Paulie feel confident that there was enough privacy for him to slip inside unseen. So he removed the master foreman key from his jacket pocket and turned it in the lock.

When he opened the large metal doors, Paulie was immediately met with a musty odor and the sight of dust particles in the air. Of course, this fact didn't surprise the blonde much. Shed #4 was rarely used by anyone anymore. A shipyard rumor about some supernatural haunting made most of the men steer clear of the building and created an ideal location for Paulie to relieve his unresolved sexual tension whenever the need presented itself.

Once inside, Paulie felt for the light switch and then closed the door after he had turned it on. Paulie rubbed the front of his jeans, feeling the outline of his erection as it curved towards the folder.

That awareness reminded Paulie he'd have to lock that folder somewhere safe until he could talk to Iceburg about what it contained and how they should proceed.

But that matter could wait for the moment. He had come to the shed with a purpose and he believed that he would not be productive at work if he kept getting distracted by the insatiable yet improper desire to fuck around with his coworker.

Paulie headed back through the cluttered corridors and rounded a second corner until he arrived at the very last section of the shed.

Along the wall in the shed's final alcove was a set of cabinets and below that row was a rusted looking sink. Paulie opened the cabinet directly above the sink and looked in at a lone dispenser and some rags.

"It's still here," Paulie thought as he removed the dispenser and a rag and set them both on the sink board.

It had been well over a month since Paulie's last visit to Dock 1's tool shed #4 and the water-based lube he had disguised as soap in a hand sanitizer container remained just as he had left it.

At home, Paulie typically used lube because it closely mimicked the actual feel of intercourse. It had been after his third time to the shed that Paulie decided to use something other than saliva when he jerked off. He preferred to dab a bit of lube on his length because he found that he enjoyed the sensation the lubrication provided. Not only did it get him off quicker than doing it raw or with saliva but he also liked it because it dried out less quickly than saliva did and was easier to produce on demand.

Indeed, Paulie enjoyed lube best of all. And owing to his prudish nature Paulie didn't use the same kind of water-based lube bought by most people at the store. He simply felt too ashamed to purchase such an item so openly especially when it might come under public scrutiny.

The lube Paulie used was from a mail order catalog he picked up where he sometimes gambled. Once ordered, the lube was delivered in a discreet package to a mail station box near his apartment. Paulie liked the brand he typically purchased because it was somewhat cheap and easier to clean up than cooking oil. He enjoyed the feel of the lube on his hand. The way it was slick, silky smooth, and felt so exquisite when he applied it to his raw, aching length and proceeded to masturbate.

Paulie extinguished his cigar on the edge of the sink and then moved his hand to the front of his jeans. It was finally time to satisfy his biological urges. Paulie unbuckled his belt and removed the cerulean blue folder. He set the plans inside the cabinet and as he closed the cabinet door, his thoughts began shifting more and more to Iceburg.

Paulie picked up the items he had left on the sink board and walked back into the corridor. He hated to admit it but his interaction with Iceburg sometimes produced the same arousing feelings he developed when he was around a man like Rob Lucci.

Paulie sat down on the floor in his usual spot holding the dispenser and a clean rag. He wanted to deal with his horniness quickly so he could get back to work before his absence from the job site became apparent to the other workers. After all, he was still on the clock and even if their construction was ahead of schedule, being gone for a lengthy period of time would raise suspicion and possibly annoy the other men.

At the very least, handling his cock for too long would detract from his work ethic and make him feel guilty about wasting time at Iceburg's expense.

Yet Paulie didn't like to really to think of his masturbation as a complete waste of company time. He preferred to view it as a work saving action. When he was too distracted, his work suffered and he made careless mistakes that took long periods of time to repair. Jerking off was one of the ways Paulie cleared his head again and got rid of the gnawing frustration within himself.

Paulie unzipped his jeans and slid his fingertips down inside the front of his briefs. He retrieved his swollen cock, pulling it up and over the gum of his underwear until the reddening head and shaft became exposed.

Paulie stroked his throbbing length, letting his fingers glide back and forth over the hardened flesh. He finished the action by giving his cock a rough flick so it would spring back towards his abdomen. Paulie pumped the dispenser and squirted a tiny bit of lube into the palm of his hand. He disliked the initial coldness of the gel so he used his other hand to warm the substance before he applied it to his length.

Paulie massaged the water-based lube along his shaft, reducing the friction between his hand and the skin of his cock. He set the dispenser on the floor and placed the rag on his thigh so it would be close at hand when he shot his load.

Paulie started to pump his dick, letting his rough thumb glide over the extra-sensitive head. He could feel the tension in his straining cock continue to build, striving towards that explosive yet shameful release.

The light over the sink flickered and Paulie looked up at the cabinet where he had placed Iceburg's folder. He closed his eyes and indulged himself by imagining the usual person that helped him come much more quickly. He pictured Iceburg sprawled out naked on his stomach lying atop a pile of ship blueprints holding a measuring tool in each hand. The older shipwright wantonly beckoned him closer with the tools, seductively stroking them together and willfully enticing him to measure anything and everything.

"Mn well, where shall we start measuring first hmm?" Paulie fantasized Iceburg might say, "Let me teach you how to get that "pole" up to full mast and out to sea."

That did it. Paulie stroked himself harder and faster. God, he felt so dirty when he made Iceburg say such filthy things and yet, he couldn't help it. There was just something so supremely erotic about his mentor being sexually forward with him even if it was just a fantasy.

As promised, the fantasy Iceburg decided to "instruct" Paulie like he often did in these imaginary trysts. First, the older shipwright would stand up and somehow make his way over to Paulie. Of course this meant giving Paulie a full frontal view of his special tool. But Paulie couldn't bring himself to actually fill in the naked blanks on Iceburg's body so naturally a map obstructed Paulie's view of Iceburg's 'real ruler.'

Paulie's pulse was racing just as fast as his hand as he envisioned Iceburg slip behind him and seductively whisper in a low voice, "Mn, seems your rigging's a little off Paulie. Let me adjust it for you."

Paulie imagined how that well-used hand would feel on his aching cock but something was off. The warmth upon his back in the fantasy no longer was coming from Iceburg. Instead, it was fueled by the memory of the recent incident in the work yard.

It was the feel and warmth of how his body crushed against Lucci's in the shipyard, the arousing recollection of muscle colliding sharply with denim. The feel of force as Lucci's hands had swept around his torso and the memory of how one of those hands eventually came to seize his belt and somehow found its way down the front of his jeans.

"Feels good," Paulie thought to himself as he remembered how close Lucci's cold hand had been in relation to his semi hard cock.

At the moment it had happened, it terrified the prudish blonde but now it pleasured him to no extent.

Iceburg vanished from the fantasy Paulie had been having and Lucci replaced him. The scene changed too but not to a shipyard like one might expect. In all honesty, it hadn't really been the first time he fantasized about Lucci while jerking himself off in the shed. But Paulie berated himself for even having such unclean thoughts about his fellow coworkers.

Iceburg was the main exception to his mental rule because Paulie had always held some kind of attraction and affection towards the great man and his work that could not be blocked out. And now, it seemed Lucci was beginning to become another exception.

Paulie pictured himself standing naked with his fellow shipwright in the workman's shower room. This choice of venue had been inspired by another moment in reality where Lucci had managed to arouse him to the point of sexual desire.

There had been a downpour of rain one afternoon that had saturated Lucci's white shirt, causing it to cling to his muscular torso. The cold, damp air did the rest and caused Lucci's nipples to harden and protrude against the white fabric. Paulie tried to ignore it but he and Lucci were working next to each other and he had seen the tantalizing shade of Lucci's flesh showing beneath the clinging garment.

At first, Paulie thought the sight was quite dirty but saying anything would indicate he was adding a perverse tone to something a shirtless man like Tilestone did regularly. So Paulie had just continued to work and tried to ignore Lucci's freezing assets. But the way the rain poured off Lucci's form stuck with him.

He liked that image of a drenched Lucci and let it run rampant through his personal fantasies. A shower scene stimulated that memory and allowed the fantasy to be decent and yet indecent at the same time.

Vividly, he imagined how he would grab Lucci's shoulders while they were both showering and then overpower the black haired shipwright with a lusty kiss. Roughly Lucci would caress Paulie's bare ass, squeezing the underside of both cheeks just before embracing him and pinning the front half of Paulie's naked body against the tiles of the shower wall.

Paulie could conceptualize the way the hot water would probably feel as it cascaded off the joined areas of their bare flesh and picture the deep signs of ecstasy that would eventually come to grip them in both in the final moments of their unrestrained passion.

Paulie arched his back as he connected with the real brick wall in the shed.

Thinking about being fucked by Lucci heightened the level of his arousal. Paulie's cock throbbed intensely as he worked himself and advanced the erotic scene playing out in his mind. He imagined Lucci pressing his full weight against his naked back and embracing him like in the ship yard. He shuddered as he imagined how it might feel to be entered by the other man's cock and to have the fantasy Lucci rest his chin on Paulie's shoulder as he nibble at the base of the blonde's neck.

"Lu...Lucci..," Paulie finally moaned as the side view of Lucci's handsome face framed by its lush, black locks shook in his mind.

Paulie cupped his balls, palming them with a vigorous, firm pressure as he they continued to draw up and snuggle against the very base of his penis, willfully responding to his impending climax. Paulie's fingers dropped to his thigh to retrieve the cloth while his other hand continued to pump.

"Nnnnnn...." Paulie moaned much louder than before.

He was getting close...

So close... So very, very close...

"Nnn...nnnn..."

To that earth shattering...

"Nnnnn...nnnn...haa....."

mind blowing....

"Lu...cci"

toe arching....

"Broo-hoo?"

Paulie's eyes snapped open and he stumbled to his feet, dropping the rag and pinching the top of his jeans together in an effort to cover up his erect cock. Shit! The pigeon was there with him in the shed. And it had been a witness to the erotic solo show he must have unknowingly been putting on for it.

Paulie shot the bird an irritated glare. He had been caught acting on his lusty impulses and with a mixture of fury and frustration in his voice Paulie angrily stated, "How dare you just sit there and watch me do something so....so shameful!"

"Broo?"

The pigeon gave Paulie a blank look and then turned to sail through the air away from the angry blonde.

"Oi! Come back here damn it!" Paulie demanded, throwing out his rope to catch the bird.

The pigeon dodged Paulie's capture attempt and ignored his command. Swiftly, Hattori sailed around the corner and out of Paulie's line of sight. Paulie chased after Hattori and while doing so, he haphazardly zipped up his zipper.

"Hattori!" Paulie shouted, skidding to a stop. But it was too late, the rope he had thrown out caught something but it was no pigeon.

A terrible thought dawned on Paulie's mind as he realized what was happening. Lucci never went anywhere without that damn pigeon and yet Paulie was still surprised when he encountered the dark haired shipwright standing in the narrow corridor.

There Lucci was, his forearm ensnared by Paulie's rope.

"Lucci," Paulie said breathlessly, letting the rope around the other man's arm go slack and fall to the ground as he tried to retract it back inside the sleeve of his jacket.

Lucci was genuinely surprised to see a disheveled Paulie standing before him with his belt and jean button undone and his right hand coated with a slick sheen.

Lucci had followed Paulie to the shed to spy on where the blonde was going to hide Iceburg's plans. But then one of the workmen interrupted his journey inside by stopping him before he could enter the building to spout off about some superstitious nonsense concerning Shed #4 being haunted by some imaginary entity. To Lucci, it was all bullshit but it would have drawn more attention if he didn't stand there and listen to it and wait until the wood carrying workman left the area.

So Hattori conducted a solo investigation for him and now that Lucci was able to resume his mission, Paulie's appearance made him question what had actually been uncovered.

With a flutter of wings, the bird settled on Lucci's shoulder. It was unfortunate to think that Hattori had been careless enough to be discovered by the blonde. But the narrow layout of the shed must have played a factor in that. Lucci didn't really have a choice but to stay where he was when he heard Paulie shouting and running after the bird. After all, it would have been more suspicious to Paulie if Hattori had been there alone without Lucci lingering somewhere nearby. It was far better to be caught with the bird than to admit that Hattori was acting independent of him. At least then he could offer Paulie some reasonable excuse for their presence there.

Paulie noticed as Lucci's eyes trailed down to the unfastened button and belt at the top of his jeans. Indeed, Lucci was looking at him, taking careful note of the firm bulge that was still erect beneath the front of his jeans.

Paulie felt like he was under a microscope. To yell and bitch about indecency and then to be so obviously guilty of it was a tremendous blow to his ego.

Lucci could sense by Paulie's body language that Paulie felt as though he were caught and deeply ashamed of something. It seemed Lucci had misjudged Paulie's primary reason for heading into the abandoned shed alone.

"Looks like gambling's not the only thing you're addicted to Paulie," Hattori mocked, cocking his head to the side.

Paulie's hands snapped to the front of his belt and he quickly refastened it. The blonde's face had by now turned bright red. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Lucci smiled inwardly. "Broo-hoo. Oh, I think you do," the bird chirped, "What's that slick stuff on your hand? That workman's grease?"

Paulie turned his attention to Lucci, "It's not how it looks!" But the evidence was everything to the contrary.

"Oil?" the bird offered, waiting for Paulie's confession.

For Lucci, it was pleasant to see Paulie in such agonizing turmoil. To see the red shame on his face, the sudden downcast waver of the blonde's eyes. Lucci realized this was Paulie's moment of weakness and like a predator, he could only think of tearing the blonde apart.

Paulie was at his most vulnerable point since they had met. Lucci suspected he could have asked Paulie anything, right then and now, and the man might have told him something valuable to keep his dirty little secret private. And yet, this side of Paulie--the vulnerable human one--intrigued Lucci and rather than finding his typical disgust in this display of weakness, it ignited something akin to desire within him.

Moments before Paulie came racing around the corner, Lucci could have sworn he heard the blonde cry his name but such an occurrence didn't seem to make sense to him at the time. Neither did the low moaning he thought he was hearing off in the distance. In fact, at first Lucci questioned whether he heard any moaning at all, dismissing it almost completely and briefly thinking that the ridiculous story the workman had told about the shed being haunted was somehow influencing his perception of the situation. Now, however, when Lucci combined what he thought he heard with what he actually saw before him, everything seemed to come into focus.

It was him that made Paulie's cock hard in the first place. He was the real reason Paulie entered the shed and not Iceburg's folder.

And it was because of this realization that Lucci decided the time was right to show Paulie he returned his interest in mutual fornication.

"I'm going back to work," Paulie stated in frustrated tone to Lucci, "It'd be best if you got the hell outta here too."

"You missed your button," Hattori reminded him, "If you go out like that, broo-hoo, people are going to start to wonder."

"Shut-up!" Paulie snapped, storming past them both.

There was flutter of wings as Hattori departed from Lucci's shoulder and took off in the direction of the alcove to presumably continue his investigation.

And like a beast striking its unsuspecting prey, Lucci caught Paulie's arm with a quick motion as the blonde passed by. Lucci then pulled Paulie back towards him, holding his wrist tightly.

"Lucci! What the hell are you--," Paulie demanded, struggling against the other man's abrupt grip.

Immediately, there was a scuffle that ended with Paulie being shoved up against one of the sawhorse's that lined the corridor. Lucci's face was only inches away from his own and Paulie could feel the heat that emanated from Lucci's breath blanketing his mouth.

An awkward silence passed between the two and Paulie couldn't help but blush a bit. The intimate scent of Lucci's hair and breath was intoxicating. His confined arousal chafed once more against the inner portion of his jeans, dying to spring free again and finish the task he had been on the verge of completing before his untimely interruption.

Lucci, in the meantime, drank in the rich aroma of Paulie's last smoked cigar that still lingered on the blonde's skin. He thrust his pelvis forward deliberately so he could feel the hardness of Paulie's crotch against the front of his own slacks. Silently, Lucci ground his body up against the shocked blonde He then pulled Paulie's slack wrist to his mouth and used one of Paulie's fingertips to penetrate his parted lips.

"Don't joke around," Paulie growled, coming to his senses again as he made an attempt to pull his hand away from Lucci's mouth.

Lucci responded to Paulie's reluctance by sticking his tongue out and seductively licking one of Paulie's lube covered digits in a very suggestive manner. Paulie's mouth gaped in astonishment and disbelief as Lucci continued his oral caress, rolling his tongue along the length of the blonde's index finger until he took the appendage in his mouth and engulfed it up to its lube coated knuckle.

Paulie's hands began to shake as Lucci sucked on his fingers one by one, accompanying each with a highly arousing suckling sound.

"Lucci," Paulie managed in a husky breath as the other shipwright's lips closed once more around the lower half of his middle finger and gently began to constrict it. Lucci relaxed his hold on Paulie's now trembling form, letting the finger inside his mouth slowly glide out between his closed lips. Paulie blankly fixated on the digit as it emerged, watching as the thin strand of saliva still connecting them spanned from the tip of his finger to the juicy inner half of Lucci's apt mouth.

Lucci relished the way the Paulie's lips seemed to grimace when the contact between his fingers and Lucci's mouth had ended. Lucci could sense that Paulie enjoyed the suggestive suckling and the sensual feel of a tongue sliding along his calloused flesh and yet...And yet, Paulie's repressive inhibitions muted the way he physically responded to those bold actions. The blonde standing before him remained dumbfounded, momentarily incapable of making sense of what the hell had actually just happened to him and yet knowing somehow it felt so shamefully delicious.

Indeed, Paulie's body was reeling from that seductive finger service but his mind fervently grappled with the fact that the man who had given it to him was none other than Rob Lucci.

"Why...?" Paulie demanded as he backed up, recklessly colliding with another sawhorse, "Why's you do that?"

Lucci stretched his arm out and caught Paulie by the jacket just as he started stumbling backwards again.

"Damn it Lucci," Paulie cursed, latching on to both of the other man's suspenders, "Open your mouth and give me a reason."

Lucci responded to Paulie's frustrated demand by cupping his hand over one of Paulie's and tugging at his fingers until they released the elastic strap they were holding. With purposeful intent, Lucci guided both their hands downward, drawing Paulie's fingertips along the very fabric that concealed his solid chest and taut abs.

The sensual trip along Lucci's body continued past the borderline where his shirt stopped and slacks began until both their hands converged directly on top of Lucci's groin. Paulie's breath hitched.

He could feel the hardness of Lucci's erection as it took shape against his palm. Instinctively, Paulie closed his fingers around the bulge and attempted to gauge the size of Lucci's massive tool. With an experimental bit of squeezing, Paulie determined that the other man's concealed package was much thicker and possibly longer than his own.

Lucci nudged Paulie backwards until a portion of his backside was resting against the sawhorse. With both hands, Lucci coaxed Paulie's knees apart, encouraging the other man's legs to go wide for him. Lucci took advantage of the fresh access to Paulie's package and stepped forward, inserting his thigh deep in-between Paulie's spread legs. Paulie's cock tingled as the firm pressure of Lucci's leg lodged against it. He responded with a favorable grunt as Lucci pulled both of Paulie's legs back together and started rocking his thigh back and forth along the blonde's crotch.

It felt incredibly good to squeeze Lucci's solid leg between his thighs, to feel the rocking friction through his jeans and to meet it halfway by lowering his pelvis so he could ride those delicious gyrations.

Paulie was finally letting his inhibitions slide and Lucci knew it. The blonde was riding him, grinding hard against his thigh because it made the cock trapped inside his jeans feel so absolutely fucking wonderful.

Still, Lucci could sense how Paulie was holding back, somehow resisting the primal urges surging though his body. Lucci craved much more than just those few, infrequent moans that passed between Paulie lips. He wanted the blonde to trust him. To take pleasure in the fact that they were on the verge of fucking.

Yet Paulie suppressed another moan as Lucci's hand ran along his shoulder blades, caressing his denim jacket. He'd never imagined that Lucci's thigh could be so skilled at working him in all the right places and yet he was afraid that any more erotic cries might draw the attention of someone outside the shed.

Paulie couldn't risk anyone else finding in such an indecent state, not when this was clearly such a filthy and shameful act. Paulie cursed himself for earlier and how he got caught up in the urge so easily the first time to gratify himself. He had let the lust overpower his good judgment and now he was giving into that tempting urge again. It was hard to deny that he didn't like the act of masturbation or even the frottage action he was now receiving in the shed. At that moment, Paulie felt as though he was building towards a more satisfying climax. Something greater than the mere solo act of masturbation could provide for him.

Lucci was in the process of tugging on the collar of his Dock 1 jacket, pulling it to the side to gain more access to his flesh. Paulie felt his neck and shoulder being exposed and he self-consciously tried to cover himself up again. Lucci stopped Paulie's hand and brushed it to the side. To compensate for Paulie's nervousness, he distracted the blonde by changing the tempo, bouncing his thigh up and down so it met Paulie's gyrations head on. Then he slid Paulie's jacket the rest of the way down, letting the rope up Paulie's sleeve trail sensually behind it until the garment came to rest on the edge of the sawhorse.

Paulie thrust his head back in wordless ecstasy as Lucci's bouncing thigh erotically worked his cock. Lucci took the opportunity to seize the taut skin of Paulie's neck between his lips and withdrew his thigh from between Paulie's legs. Paulie shuddered as Lucci repositioned himself and sensuously began kissing down his throat. Paulie's face grew hot as an odd mixture of embarrassment and pleasure flooded his senses. He found himself getting caught up in the heat of the moment and the way it felt to have the prickliness of the other man's facial hair brush against his skin.

He longed to touch Lucci, to run his fingers along the other man's muscular torso and he found that he couldn't resist the desire to do so any longer. Paulie's arm wrapped around the back of Lucci's sleeveless shirt while his other hand griped the edge of the sawhorse for support. As Paulie groped along Lucci's back he could feel a strange unevenness lying beneath the fabric, almost like an upraised patch of skin.

Lucci took Paulie's wrist in his hand and once more tugged it away from the lower center of his back. He liked having Paulie demonstrate some ambition and the feel of having the blonde touch him. Perhaps, Lucci considered, this was a sign that he was winning Paulie's trust over. That certainly would help him with his overall mission but it would blow his cover if Paulie realized what symbol the scars on his back actually made. Lucci diverted Paulie's attention back to the front of their bodies and interlocked his fingers with Paulie's. Then he guided both their hands to the buckle on Paulie's belt and undid the circle hook.

It was amazing to Paulie that the encounter had really going this far. Paulie could barely believe it. Lucci was the man he always fought with. The one who never directly spoke to him in all the time they knew each. The man whose bird scolded him for doing rotten things and lectured gambling and wasting money. And yet, now, one of his hidden sexual fantasies was becoming a reality.

"I..."

Paulie hesitated, not really wanting to stop but reminding himself of the consequences that might lie ahead if he and Lucci went any further. Lucci didn't seem to pay attention to the seriousness of this kind of encounter. But then again perhaps Paulie was just thinking about it too much. He felt Lucci slide his belt out of its loops and pulled it away from his waist, his reluctant train of thought diminished.

Everything was going to be okay. Lucci couldn't talk. And besides who the hell was he going to tell anyways? It was just a one shot thing going on between two male shipwrights. It probably wouldn't be the first time nails weren't the only things being hammered in the shipyard. So Paulie resolved to give it a go and unfastened the button on his jeans. When else would he have a chance to be with Lucci like this again...? He knew he wanted to give into this and he unfastened his zipper.

Lucci eased Paulie's jeans down around his knees. Then Lucci's hands caught the back of Paulie's thighs and slid up underneath the back of his underwear. The skin there was especially warm and sensitive to foreign touch. Lucci could feel Paulie squirming underneath his caress.

For Paulie, this experience was both liberating and frightening. He knew it was dirty and shameful. The kind of thing Paulie always fantasized Iceburg would do to him late one night in the shipyard but never did. Whether it was because Iceburg lacked interest in him or was simply because he was too busy to start anything, Paulie just knew it never happened and most likely never would.

But with Lucci....It was happening to him now. Lucci was cupping the bottom of his ass cheeks, kneading his fingers into uncharted territory. Paulie winced as Lucci withdrew one hand and brought it to the front of his briefs. Instead of delving downward, he went upward, pulling Paulie's bull-eye shirt up over his abs. Then, without hesitation, Lucci knelt down before him and started kissing a line down Paulie's muscular stomach. Those warm kisses morphed into licks as Lucci rounded his belly button and inserted his tongue in the tiny orifice.

"I can't!" Paulie blurted out, pushing against Lucci's forehead to make him back off, "This isn't natural...It's so.."

Paulie hesitated to say the word "filthy." Everything he'd been taught told him this kind of behavior was improper. How could he think it was alright? It was something his body was wanting but he knew he shouldn't have.

"I don't know if we should end this or...Uhnnnnnnnn..." Paulie shuddered as Lucci's fingers left his ass and began massaging the tip of his swollen cock. Simultaneously, Lucci's mouth picked up where he had left off and traveled to the hem of Paulie's briefs.

"Why are you making me feel like this?" Paulie choked, "Damn it Lucci. We're both men."

At these frustrated words, Lucci stopped and pulled his lips away from Paulie's body. Then, without looking at Paulie, Lucci got off his knees and began brushing the dirt off them.

Lucci stood there a moment before there was a flutter of wings and the bird reappeared and landed on his shoulder. "You enjoyed it though, didn't you? Broo-hoo?"

"Hattori! Get out of here!" Paulie demanded.

"Wasn't it Lucci's touch in the work yard the reason you were getting yourself off in the first place?" Hattori asked, cocking his head to the side, "We both know you want this so don't try to be so damn modest broo-hoo. What type of shipwright are you if can't even finish what you started? "

Paulie bit his lip. The bird was right. He did want this to continue, despite everything. Then, almost as quickly as the pigeon had returned, it left again heading in the opposite direction until it disappeared somewhere out of sight around the other corner.

It seemed quite possible to Lucci that the sexual encounter he was having with Paulie had ended. The blonde was having second thoughts and although Lucci was eager to continue, he wasn't interested in forcing Paulie to go any further than he wanted to. It was obvious that Paulie's convictions might outweigh his common sense and overshadow that irrepressible biological drive to fuck. And although this realization was a bit of a disappointment, it had given both men something they both had secretly wanted.

There was an awkward silence between the two shipwrights as Lucci picked up his top hat off the sawhorse. Paulie realized the encounter was ending and he knew he didn't really want it to. His throbbing cock still wanted to know the satisfaction Lucci seemed willing to give it. Without wanting to worry anymore about whether it was indecent or not to fool around with Lucci in a cramped tool shed, Paulie pushed himself off the sawhorse and caught Lucci's arm as he started to leave.

"Wait," Paulie said lowly, stopping Lucci before he could go any further, "I want to finish this."

********To be continued in Chapter 2****** **

_So. What did you think? Write a review or KUDOS are cool too._


	2. The Roundabout Way

It had been exactly thirty seven minutes and eleven seconds since Iceburg handed Paulie a cerulean blue folder with unspecified content.Twenty four minutes and thirty six seconds since Paulie abruptly declared he had run out of rope and needed more. Twenty two minutes and three seconds since Paulie had actually disappeared from the work yard with Hattori and Lucci tailing him.

....And it hadn't been until exactly three minutes and forty four seconds that any of Paulie's coworkers, excluding Kaku, had even noticed the blonde was still missing.

"Where's Paulie?" Lulu asked as he approached Kaku, "Another one of his creditors just came by."

"HE WAS HERE A MINUTE AGO," Tilestone blurted out before Kaku could reply, " RIGHT LUCCI? "

Kaku sighed inwardly as Tilestone loudly realized that both Paulie and Lucci were no longer working beside him.

If Tilestone had been a more observant man, he would've noticed their absence much sooner than he did. But like most of the workmen, he was preoccupied and didn't realize that either man was no longer present.

In this regard, Tilestone was very unlike Kaku who had remained keenly aware of his surroundings the entire time. After Lucci and Hattori departed he had continued sawing but his mind was fixated on the mission and Lucci's actions.

Kaku had thought about the accident in the shipyard. Recalling the way Lucci had wrapped his arms around Paulie and held the blonde in his life-saving embrace. For Kaku, it felt strange to see Lucci saving a man's life rather than taking it.

Their occupation prior to the mission in Water 7 had been one of death and murder by assassination. However, since Kaku had arrived in Water 7, he hadn't killed a soul. And the only blood he saw came from those rare accidents at Galley La or the times when he became so aggressive in bed that he nipped Lucci's skin hard enough to draw blood from the surface.

Seeing blood that day would not have been an unwelcome sight, even if it did have to come from Paulie. Kaku missed the rush that seeing and smelling blood gave him. The thrilling feel that gripped him when he encountered the pain of another and came face to face with their agony.

From what he knew about Lucci, the dark haired CP9 member had been the same way. They both shared a common bloodlust and held jobs that allowed them to satisfy that violent side of their nature.

Paulie, Kaku concluded, must still have been valuable to the CP9's mission in Water 7. That fact was obvious because Lucci had kept the blonde from harm. He had protected Paulie.

Kaku noted that Lucci had always maintained a sustained interest in the blonde ever since they started working for Galley La nearly five years ago. Lucci believed Paulie was a key player in their mission. Unlike the other workers at Galley La, Paulie had a unique relationship with Iceburg.

He had what Lucci once referred to as a "hero crush" on the mayor. Paulie grew up admiring Iceburg because he helped build the magnificent sea train and it was through Paulie that the CP9 had learned a great deal more about the purple haired mayor's past. Befriending Paulie gave them a better understanding of life in Water 7 before and during the period Iceburg had united the seven shipbuilding companies within the city.

Paulie was proud to discuss the admirable things Iceburg had done for Water 7 and to explain how the mayor had helped him become a shipwright. Iceburg had even personally mentored the impressionable Paulie when he was eager to learn about shipbuilding. It had been through this mentoring that the two men eventually came to share such a strong friendship and good working relationship.

And it was because of this friendship that Paulie worked hard to become the most respected foreman on Dock 1. He was young and earned his position by not only skill but also dedication.

It had taken nearly half a year for Kaku himself to rise to the rank of foreman at Dock 1. Infiltrating the Galley La Company had required he demonstrate not only a skill in shipbuilding but also a deep commitment to the company.

Kaku found he was well liked in Water 7 because of his job as a shipwright at Iceburg's company and for his own part, Kaku enjoyed being a member of the city and its lifestyle. Califa and Blueno had also taken to this life but it seemed Lucci was still quite detached from it.

Kaku observed that Lucci was very mission oriented and denied having any attachments to the city. But Kaku sometimes wondered if that attitude had been misleading. It seemed impossible for Lucci not to form some attachment to the things and people in Water 7.

They had been there for almost five years and no matter how cold Lucci could become, it didn't seem possible that he could deaden himself so much to everything the city had to offer.

Kaku wondered what would happen when the mission was completed and they really had to leave everything behind. He could see this nagging realization present in Califa's eyes when she had spoke with him in the workyard. Hers was a look of silent regret, one of acknowledgement that their lengthy mission was finally on the verge of ending.

Of course everything wouldn't end. Kaku would still be part of the same team. Only the CP9 would have a new mission, one that hopefully was a more active assignment than their present one. And he suspected that he'd still have those rough nights with Lucci to look forward to. Nights when the sex was so forceful that they ended their erotic session covered in sweat and blood. Nights when Kaku made every effort to dominate Lucci in bed in the hopes that one day the dark haired man would slip up and cry out his name in the heat of passion.

And although there were many things that might continue after Water 7, there were also many more things he was sure he'd miss about living in the city. Like the way the children admired him and made him feel like he belonged. Or the fact that he got to live out his childhood ambition of building ships.

It would be a shame to leave Water 7 but like all missions, he understood that it was necessary for them to come to an end.

So Kaku had been sawing and waiting in the shipyard for Lucci's sign. Anticipating the moment when the other CP9 member would return with either some news or Iceburg's folder.

Yet the wait had been almost too long by Kaku's standards and he wondered if perhaps there had been a complication.

"LUCCI?" Tilestone shouted, expecting him to return from somewhere nearby.

"Anybody know where Paulie is?" Lulu asked loudly, "I got a message for him."

"I don't know about Paulie but I just saw Lucci's bird hanging around outside the abandoned shed," a workman carrying a plank told them.

Both Tilestone and Lulu exchanged glances, "Abandoned? You mean THE abandoned shed."

"Yeah. Lucci looked like he wanted to go inside so I talked him out of it." the plank carrying workman explained.

"WHY WOULD ANYBODY WANNA EVEN GO INSIDE SHED NUMBER 4." Tilestone worried aloud. "UNLESS...UNLESS...HE HEARD SOMETHING COMING FROM INSIDE."

"Abandoned shed?" Kaku interrupted, taking close note of their reaction to the building's mention, "Oh...Isn't that the one haunted according to folklore?"

"THERE'S A GRUDGE IN THERE KAKU!" Tilestone exclaimed.

"A ghost," Lulu interjected, pushing the point of his hair back down.

"DEAD MEN WHO KILL PEOPLE AREN'T GHOSTS, THEY'RE GRUDGES."

"Well, now if we're getting technical, it's not men, it's man. Dead man." Lulu corrected, "And no, it's not 'grudges' we're dealing with, it's 'a' grudge."

"BUT WHAT ABOUT---" Tilestone argued back and just kept on going.

Kaku stayed out of the matter as best as he could. He didn't find himself believing in ghosts or grudges and viewed the entire argument over the supernatural being's existence as a waste of time. The only purpose it did serve was to make the men at Dock 1 steer clear of shed number 4.

It was amazing how a little rumor could scare the hell out of these buff shipbuilding men. Kaku had been in that shed only once and it had been because he had heard so much about this strange, superstitious rumor that he decided to investigate the matter. He wasn't surprised when he found nothing unusual about the shed. To him, it was just a cramped building with narrow corridors lined with old tools and construction equipment. And although he had heard the occasional rumor about the odd moaning that sometimes emanated from the building, he had never actually encountered the phenomena so didn't really believe in any of it.

Yet, he was certain that if Hattori was near the tool shed and a worker had reported that Lucci was staring at that building, then he could conclude that Paulie must have entered it in the hopes of concealing the secrets plans.

"Lulu. Perhaps Paulie saw the man you were speaking with and rushed off, " Kaku offered.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Lulu remarked, picking up the carving Paulie had been working on, "And it seems he did leave in a hurry."

"I'll check around for him. There's an errand I need to finish." Kaku stated.

And after a consenting nod from Lulu, Kaku leaned his saw against the sawhorse and headed towards the opposite end of the work yard.

He deliberately spoke to one of the workmen once he was out of Lulu's hearing range to create the illusion that he was asking around about Paulie's location. He wanted to convince Lulu that he would handle the task and yet actually do so without completing it.

After all, he already had an idea where Paulie had gone and did not want an interruption to blow his team's mission. It would be troublesome indeed if there was outside interference in their group's affairs.

So Kaku took the roundabout way of heading to the back of the workyard until he came upon the row of tool sheds.

As the plank carrying workman had described, Hattori was perched on the roof opposite Shed #4.

Yet there was something about the scene that automatically put Kaku on alert. Something that seemed very out of place considering the situation.

He could hear a noise. A distinct series of sounds.

And to his ears, it was the unmistakable echo of moaning.

 

**_****To be continued in Chapter 3****_ **

Encouraging reviews and KUDOS. *wink, wink*  ^_~


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